Korean rapper Psy's "Gentleman" climbs YouTube heights

TOKYO (Reuters) - South Korean rapper Psy's new video, "Gentleman", rocketed up the YouTube heights with more than 82 million views on Tuesday, chasing the success of his megahit "Gangnam Style" after smashing the previous record for first-day views for songs.

"Gangnam Style", which holds the YouTube record for most views ever with more than 1.5 billion, made the corpulent Korean a global star and one of the best-known faces to come out of the growing K-pop music scene.

The video to "Gentleman" racked up more than 20 million hits in the first 24 hours after its release on Saturday night. That easily outstripped the 8 million views for Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" in its first 24 hours.

"51 million views in 40 hours!!My God!!" Psy tweeted on Monday.

The song was also climbing music charts around the world, hitting 8th in Britain and 7th in Australia, according to the Apple store's iTunes ranking, and holding top place in most of Scandinavia. It ranked 21st for songs overall, compared with 90th place on Saturday before the video was released.

"He is good. I love his energy," one woman commented on YouTube. Others said the video was hilarious and the sunglass-wearing 35-year-old's dancing "smooth."

Some were less complimentary, with a few saying the video was arrogant and "too sexual". It shows Psy playing tricks on women such as splashing coffee in their faces and untying a bikini top.

"Meh. 'Gangnam Style' was better," one woman wrote.

"Gangnam Style" racked up digital sales of 3.59 million units in the United States and Canada last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS, 9th in the best-selling list. It was third on Amazon's MP3 song bestseller list for 2012.